We believe amazing things can happen over a cup of coffee.

Everyone’s coffee experience is unique – that’s why we bring this flavour into our careers. We keep our care and guidance individual to you. We celebrate achievements and support one another in a workplace that’s committed to doing the right thing – all across the world.

Our goal is simple but ambitious. Jacobs Douwe Egberts: a coffee for every cup.

JDE is a €5 billion global business retaining a start-up feel and containing some of the leading brands in Coffee and Tea – Kenco, L’OR, Tassimo and Douwe Egberts to name a few.

The UK represents a top 5 global market for JDE and continues to be a growth engine for the category, driving premiumisation by leading the single-serve partition with the Tassimo brand and premiumising the instant coffee segment through Kenco, L’OR and the Douwe Egberts brands.

Working with us is an exciting opportunity to make a difference in the world’s largest pure play coffee company.

Business context of the role:

Jacobs Douwe Egberts Research and Development (R&D) is part of the Global JDE organization. R&D is the major contributor to the development of innovative coffee and tea products and is constantly optimizing the product portfolio. Focus of R&D is on building technology platforms, new products, portfolio renovations and productivity initiatives. R&D have a strong involvement in JDE business and are providing valuable input to enable business decisions to be made. Projects are mostly carried out together with Marketing, Operations and Procurement Departments.

 About the role:

The Product Development Specialist will report to the R&D Product Development Team Lead – Instants, you will be at the heart of the real coffee business working for the Instants Category which represents the bulk of our business and an area where continuous innovation is a necessity to grow our market position.

Your main responsibility will be to support the Research & Development department by determining and implementing product solutions within the global instant coffee network.  This role is critical to the fast-paced instant coffee category and will determine and specify product process solutions to support the company’s growth alongside projects that drive productivity.  The role will support all global instant coffee sites

The Product Development role offers an excellent opportunity to lead and support product design by understanding consumer needs and developing product to meet those needs. You will lead industrial trials to qualify products while supporting specifications development, improvement and harmonization. You will also determine and implement solutions to support the Instant Category agenda while participating in the wider instant R&D community (pilot plant trials, plant start-ups etc). The role will also be responsible for communicating product changes to the R&D and operations team and supporting through knowledge creation and documentation.

Key responsibilities of the role:  

• Manage and execute assigned R&D projects with the aim to deliver new knowledge, skills, production capabilities and products to market inline with JDE processes acting as R&D project leader with some guidance from team leader on time, in quality and in full.
• Develop prototypes or re-formulate existing products to improve taste or brewing performance. Lead and define pilot and plant trial/ qualification, scaling up to full production in factory working as part of x-functional teams. Lead product sign-off meetings with Marketing.
• Lead consumer test planning and execution in collaboration with Consumer Science in line with JDE Quality Procedures, including preparation of HACCP and Consumer Test Product Approval forms
• Responsible for project delivery compliance with JDE requirements, as well as compliance with contractual change management process specific to Single Serve by completing testing and statistical analysis reporting results to management
• Create and complete specifications in JDE specification system. Create reports and deliver presentations throughout project life-cycles to both project teams and stakeholders.  Demonstrate disciplined knowledge capture at project closure.
• Comfortable operating in a high paced category managing multiple projects with some interdependencies and technical complexity

• Prior experience within an R&D function ideally in the food and/or beverage industry
• Ideally have a degree in food science/food technology or equivilant experience
• Designing, executing, supporting, and leading trials to take product from lab scale to production scale
• Ability to make decisions based on understanding process data and trends
• Understanding of sensory product profiles and consumer testing tools for product design validation
• Strong and clear communicator at all levels (trial reports, presentation skills, cross-functional working)
• Delivering results through individual and team environments
• Build and develop cross-functional relationships
• Passionate and take a hands-on approach
• Able to travel outside the UK and be away from the home office for multiple days

What’s it like to work at JACOBS DOUWE EGBERTS?

We are proud of our passionate and driven associates who challenge the status quo and pursue mastery in everything they do. Our goal is simple and ambitious – JACOBS DOUWE EGBERTS: A coffee for every cup

Working with us means you’ll be making an impact in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. We work as a team, celebrating success and support one another. Our associates work with a diverse group of like-minded people in an innovative environment committed to doing the right thing across the globe. Your achievements here will get noticed.

Jacobs Douwe Egberts is a global coffee & tea company, serving consumers in more than 80 countries through iconic brands including: JACOBS, TASSIMO, MOCCONA, SENSEO, L'OR, DOUWE EGBERTS, KENCO, PILAO and GEVALIA